An Inauguration Is Just The Beginning

October 25, 2018

“Building a stronger relationship between UVA and the surrounding community is one of my top priorities as president.”
UVA President Jim Ryan

This past weekend UVA inaugurated its 9th President, Jim Ryan, and change is in the air. From the start, President Ryan has highlighted three broad, and as yet undefined, areas of vision: community, service, and discovery. To symbolize this vision, President Ryan hosted a 5K Community Bridges Walk/Run and a community service fair on Saturday. The Walk/Run raised $25,000 for CNE and members selected by participants.

CNE will use the funds raised to increase access to its programs, including to fund scholarships for the Board Academy, for which we are recruiting now for the 2019 class. Special thanks to all of the CNE members who signed up to share their missions with UVA students, faculty, and staff, as well as the broader community. We enjoyed spending time with you and hope you made a few great connections.

To start the community conversation, President Ryan has formed a UVA/Community working group. CNE’s Executive Director, Cristine Nardi, is part of the group which has this charge: to identify the highest priority community issues that would benefit from potential partnerships with UVA; and to consider a long-term structure for developing solutions. The group will present its recommendations to the President in February 2019.
A key activity of the group will be to reach out to community organizations and leaders for feedback on these questions. We have some ideas at CNE, and we want to share YOUR ideas as well to amplify the voice of nonprofits doing critical community-building work in this discussion. Please tell us what you are thinking so that Cristine can share it with President Ryan and the working group.